Every family's worst nightmare came true when Steven Pellettiere-Swapp found his mother, Lyndee, unconscious in their family home.
She fell into a coma that lasted for 12 days and it seemed like there was little hope for the 45-year-old woman. Doctors told her husband, son, Steven, and daughter, Amanda, that there was nothing more they could do for her.
While she was not technically brain dead, after a dozen days, it was time to face the probability that she wouldn't wake up.
Lyndee had made the decision to preserve her organs for donation, so in keeping with her wishes, her Arizona family decided to take her off of life support.
Medics had already assigned Lyndee's organs to two people and were standing just outside the room, waiting to collect them after she passed.
One by one each family member came and sat with her, and talked. Not knowing at the time, but Lyndee heard every word they said.
"I remember people talking to me," she explained. "I remember when people came to visit, my niece reading to me."
That's not all she remembers from her time in the coma.
"[Doctors] told [my family] that I would start to make noises when they turned off life support. I was very agitating. I couldn't move. I couldn't talk, couldn't respond. I could just hear conversations around me and about me," Lyndee continued. "I remember a doctor opening my eyes, messing with me, and telling my family I was not reacting."
Lyndee was desperate to have her words heard.
"In my head it was very clear what I was saying, but it wasn't to them. I was finally able to get out 'I'm a fighter,' which is what my husband was whispering in my ear. [He said] 'I need to you to fight.'"
She couldn't move, she couldn't respond or talk, but she managed to fight.
That's when the words came out that blew her family away.
"I'm a fighter," Lyndee managed to whisper into her husband's ear.
They were just saying their final goodbyes after they had pulled the plug and the woman was alive, alert and fighting.
Her daughter, Amanda, wasn't in the room when she said those words that changed everything.
When she came to the hospital to visit her the next day, she was shocked to hear her speaking. She broke down into tears and hugged her mother tightly.
"I looked at her, and she just says, 'Hi,' and I just fell to my knees. "I told her, 'I thought you had been gone for 12 hours,'" Amanda told AZ Family.
Lyndee made a steady recovery and now she can share the story of her family's words that brought her back to life.
#MUSTWATCH: Imagine making the painful decision take your unresponsive loved one off of life support...and they survive! This is Lyndee's story. She was in a coma, but what her family and doctors didn't know is she could hear discussions, even the ones doctors had with her family about the process of dying. Feel free to share.
Posted by YettaGibson on Thursday, March 3, 2016
"Just because you are not conscious does not mean you cannot hear," she told CBS 5 Arizona. "So you should talk to your loved ones if you are in that situation. They hear you."
The family doesn't take any of their time together for granted.
"Everything can be taken away. You can wake up one day and everything is fine, and then your life is a mess. Keep your family close and don't let them go," said Steven.
What do you think? Do you talk to sick family members, even when you don't think they can hear you?
Source: AZ Family
